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Readers reflect on the impact of an MSU Denver degree.

Publish Date: June 23, 2014

Metropolitan Denver Magazine Winter, 2014 cover.

We Said:

The winter 2014 issue of the Metropolitan Denver Magazine considered transformations and the theme “Mind+Body+Spirit.” Stories included news from the nursing program and a profile of IDP graduate Jonathon Stalls’ walking revolution

You Responded:

While reading the magazine’s winter edition, I was very pleased to find that MSU Denver is offering a BSN program and many more options for an RN-to-BSN degree. I became an RN in 1998 and went back to school after working several years as a clinical RN. I enrolled in “MSCD” at the time in the Healthcare Management Program. I obtained a BS in that program and received a great job offer from my practicum experience in a supervisory-level health care position, which still utilized my clinical experience yet expanded upon the business-related education I received in my degree. Since then I’ve relocated to Houston and currently am in the New York City metro area. I’ve been quite successful in obtaining a similar position in each city with the hospital increasing in bed capacity, thereby enhancing my knowledge base and clinical experience even further. Metro helped me to be very successful in its program with working professionals such as myself as well as young freshmen—a very diversified urban culture in many aspects. I credit my outstanding education to an invested team of professors who were current and knowledgeable in their fields. It was a supportive scenario for a mother, like myself, who wanted to further her education while caring for young children. I would recommend MSU Denver to any health care professional who desires to further their education and experience. It will prove your marketability to your current employer, or give you a new profession to specialize in.—Victoria O’Daniel, B.S. nursing ’09

I can say, all these years later, that the Individualized Degree Program (IDP) was a godsend for me. I did get 15 credit hours of journalism school in before I was forced to change my major. That’s where the IDP came in. I completed several courses in the structure of the English language. I took grammar courses and such courses as history of the English language and semantics. There were also courses in the old speech communications area, such as nonverbal communication, persuasion, debate and psychology of communication. My multicultural [course] was in communication styles of the various cultures. Thanks to the courses I learned in my IDP, I can edit copy (journalism) and hold my own in conversations (speech communication), and I can tell where the other person is coming from. I feel also that I have an educational advantage over the people who took other majors.—Cheryl Murphy, B.A. IDP ’96

How did your MSU Denver education change your life? Tell us about your favorite professors, best classes and the life lessons you learned along the way. Join the conversation at facebook.com/msudenver. Or send a letter to the editor at magazine@msudenver.edu or write to Metropolitan Denver Magazine, Metropolitan State University of Denver, Campus Box 86, PO Box 173362, Denver, CO 80217.